Fwd: Si a alguien le sorprende es que no conoce nuestro Pais

Hey I just received this mail from Jose and Viky (who are in tour in Europe right now! www.joseyviky.com.ar).

Basically, the La Ciudad de Buenos Aires is cancelling the next Festival de Buenos Aires Tango. I don't know about Macri and the political ins and outs, but here here is the letter from María Carolina Simón, una grossa del mundo del tango (er, I think).

I've been in Buenos Aires for two years and for personal reasons I know a lot about how the State deals with The Arts in Argentina (for instance, ever heard of the Ballet Folklórico Nacional de Argentina? No one has, because it's an organismo del estado). In so many aspects, if the goverment of Argentina would only stop fucking things up and take care of what they have, Argentina would again be one of the best countries in the world (instead of being a cheap tourist destination, meat restaurant, tango practice spot, and place to set up cheap call centers).


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Dec 13, 2007 2:52 PM
Subject: Si a alguien le sorprende es que no conoce nuestro Pais

Estimados músicos, bailarines, profesores, organizadores de milongas, fotógrafos, dibujantes, docentes, medios de prensa y todos aquellos que desde 1998 han sido parte, cada uno desde su lugar, del Festival Buenos Aires Tango, de los Campeonatos Metropolitano y Mundial de Baile de Tango, y de la web Tangodata :


El próximo Festival Buenos Aires Tango, ocasión en que la ciudad celebraría por décima vez nuestro género ciudadano, no será una ocasión de festejo, como muchos habíamos imaginado. Las autoridades de Cultura de la gestión que asumió el último fin de semana nos han comunicado la suspensión del evento. Lo hicieron justamente el 11 de diciembre, aunque dudo que sepan qué debía festejarse ese día.

Cabe señalar que esta decisión fue tomada sin haber conversado con ninguno de nosotros acerca de qué era lo que estaba armado, a qué artistas se había convocado, qué espacios estaban involucrados, es decir, sin evaluar cuáles serían las consecuencias de la decisión ni quiénes resultarían perjudicados.

La instalación nacional e internacional de Tangodata y de los eventos de Tango que hasta el viernes organizaba el Gobierno de la Ciudad fue una ardua tarea que venía desarrollándose desde hace años, incluso desde la época en que el actual Ministro de Cultura, Hernán Lombardi, era Subsecretario de Turismo de la Ciudad.

Lamentablemente, hoy vemos que el vaciamiento del área de Tango y del resto de los Festivales es una estrategia planeada desde hace tiempo, lo que queda demostrado en la celeridad y la violencia con que implementaron este cambio, que se parece bastante a una demolición. El martes, primer día hábil de la gestión macrista, llegamos a lo que hasta entonces eran nuestras oficinas y nos encontramos con que los carteles que indicaban los espacios de los distintos eventos habían sido arrancados. Ese mismo día la flamante Coordinadora General de Producción nos comunicó que el Festival se suspendía, que cambiarían la estructura de la Dirección y que todos íbamos a ser reasignados a otras tareas y en otros espacios físicos. Ayer, miércoles, fuimos invitados a desalojar las oficinas, vaciar las computadoras y retirar nuestros efectos personales de ellas. Nos otorgarán "francos compensatorios" hasta el 15 de enero y temo lo que ese día pueda ocurrir.

No sólo se está despreciando un proyecto que llevó años construir, sino que también se desprecian los recursos humanos y el conocimiento que formamos a lo largo de diez años.

Pido disculpas a todos los convocados para ser parte del Festival que ya no será. Probablemente, haya pecado de ingenua y hasta de optimista, pero sinceramente este escenario no lo soñé ni en la peor de mis pesadillas. A su vez, agradezco que nos hayan acompañado todos estos años y que nos hayan permitido trabajar con ustedes, disfrutando de su arte, de sus conocimientos y de todos ustedes como personas.

También quiero expresar mi enorme gratitud a todos los que formaron parte del equipo, los que están y los que estuvieron. Les agradezco el trabajo, la entrega, el compromiso y la pasión que pusieron. El éxito y el prestigio innegables que logramos construir (y el macrismo viene a destruir) fue posible porque entre todos lo hicimos posible.

Espero encontrarme con muchos de ustedes en situaciones más felices. Muchas gracias,

María Carolina Simón

Not Tango Nuevo: Traditional Prácticas in Buenos Aires

I would say that any of the larger places -- especially the Viruta and Canning -- work as "prácticas" on off days and earlier in the night. Especially check out Canning on Monday nights right after the class or on Tuesday nights (but go early, that way you get more space and feel around the space more, so it's like a práctica) and on Thursday nights (check out the class with Damian Essel (?) on Thursday nights too. At the Viruta), one-stop-shop for all kinds of Tango, check out Sunday nights (at 12 or 1), Wednesday nights (I think there's a class first), and maybe Thursday night.

In Buenos Aires there's a lot of Tango but it's hard to say which place is going to be great what night, exactly. Práctica X, for example, explodes when someone well-known dances there, but sometimes it explodes when no one is dancing. The Viruta is totally unpredictable.

One rule of thumb: the Viruta, Canning and every other club in Buenos Aires follow the same pattern. So if you talk to a whole bunch of Argentinians and everyone is going out -- even if it's for Electronica -- you know that the cabs will be hard to get and the milonga will be crowded as well.

Well, at least that's my best sociological view on the thing.

Thanks For Your Support

I'm writing this entry from the road so it'll be brief.

Thanks for your comments and emails about this blog. I thought I had no readers at all, but that's not true.

First off, I'm travelling in Brazil until the 17th or so (been here since the 6th) and when I get everything in front of me I will put up my links to all Tango stuff in Rio de Janeiro. I met some nice people and found the main milonga in Lapa (miraculously). I'll write more about the Milonga in Lapa (Rua Lapa at the Associacao of Moco or whatever) later, but the kind of general rule that the old people show up to the first part and then the young people show up is true here. I was trying to think of whether that's true in Buenos Aires, and it kind of is. In La Viruta, for instance, the older people do pack it in earlier than the younger people.

So sometime soon I'll write some stuff about WHAT TIME to get to a milonga or práctica, because that's almost as important as knowing where to go and what to wear (casual for the prácticas, but if you're headed to a nice milonga like Tuesday night at Canning, do dress up).

Anyway, the main questions people had about Tango in Buenos Aires were where DNI is and so forth. Now just let me say for the record that in DNI they work a lot with el abrazo abierto and it's a bit moderny, so I think that if you just do that you're missing a big part of what is tango salón (excuse my Spanishy sentence structure). I would definitely check out the classes with Maxi and Maricel in the OSPACA ( http://www.maxiymaricel.com/) or the superfamous classes with Pablito Perez in Sunderland on Mondays and Wednesdays at 8pm (take the 41 bus from Avenida Cabildo). I wish I had some better suggestions out there, but for right now I'm a bit dry on suggestions.

So anyway, DNI is at http://www.estudiodnitango.com.ar/ and I like them a lot and they are VERY popular so you'll get to know a lot of the foreigners who are in Buenos Aires at the same time as you, studying tango and going to the practicas. As I said, you need something else to supplement DNI, but DNI is a pretty decent place and a good technique, especially for the woman to learn how to responder a la marca. The problem is that the guys learn how to do hard stuff and never learn how to walk.

The best practicas are Tango Cool (www.tangocool.com, I think) and PracticaX (check out their blog which is practicax.blogspot.com ) and yes, there are generally more women than men, which is how the world of dance works anyway.

And now a random note about Tango for both men and women: to increase your chances of dancing more, try everything. You don't have to make yourself supersexy or show cleavage (or wear an Armani suit), but you should be clean and presentable for EVERY night that you go to dance. You may NOT get a chance to dance with a great dancer because of your unkempt appearance, or, worse, you may not get asked (or get accepted if you do the asking) when you come back because of that.

It's true, most people are really nice and don't care if you stink or look nice. But Buenos Aires is, in general, a superficial place, and this is true in Tango también.

And while I'm at it and typing up a storm, two other things: guys, unless you are absolutely convinced it will be well received, do not give women ANY advice, EVER. This is true even if the woman just decides to switch feet on you all the time because she "doesn't understand your lead." First off, your lead is probably unclear, and secondly, you're not going to get her to stop sucking with one or two comments. It will probably take months. And that advice goes for both leaders and followers.

Second, if you're dancing with somebody, pretend you enjoy it until the tanda or three songs (is the práctica) is up, and then say "thank you" and be on your way. If they are really terrible, you can say thanks after one or two songs. Don't make up any excuses about going to the bathroom, and don't ask them how long they've been dancing. Most people who suck know they suck, anyway. I should know. I used to be really bad, and now I'm just "not good" (and getting heaps better).

Cheers from Brazil!

Still Rocking On, But Very Little Blogging Again

I'm still in Buenos Aires and still doing a lot of tango classes, and still liking the prácticas better than the milongas. Why? Space. Dancing in a phone booth in the geriatric ward is fun, but it's just not my way of seeing Tango. At the same time, I don't like how Chicho dances, either. My chica would definitely feel nauseous if she saw this (does she know I have a blog? does anyone?) but I think some of the coolest people out there really are Pablo and Dana. Yeah, I know, it's hard to take that the same people that are getting all the spotlight are really that good.

But my respect for Pablo and Dana goes beyond that. I am even impressed with the empresa that they've made here. I like taking classes with (almost) all the teachers/dancers at DNI, and I like how they dance. I've been at Tango Brujo, Carlos Copello, and Mora Godoy, and none of those places have a central technique that they are teaching. None of those places have the teachers watching each others' classes. And none of those places has the student loyalty that DNI has.

Anyway, enough for now. I'm going to Jose and Viky's last class. Depending on the students, their classes range from okay to great. And seeing as the 13 pesos include the práctica, it's worth it.

Here are the times for the guys who took 3rd place in the Campeonato, Maxi y Maricel:

Miércoles Viérnes Sábado y Domingo 20.30 Anchorena y Zelaya (where Práctica X is!).

I'll check them out while Jose and Viky are out on tour in Europe.

El cambiazo

No one reads the blog anyway, so I'll put some of it in Spanish. And while I'll writing this I'm actually drinking mate, que casi nunca hago (pero compré dos bombillas de putísima madre, así que debería tomarlo más)... al mismo tiempo estoy escuchando Chris Fortier y saltando una clase de DNI nivel 2-3. Está bien porqué recientemente el nivel se tira para abajo en 2/3.

Tengo un volante de la práctica El Cambiazo, y antes de tirarlo en la basura, pongo los datos acá por si a alguien le interesa. El Cambiazo es "La práctica de cambio de rol" y se hace todos los sábados de 17 a 20 horas (mmm... quién sabe a qué hora llegaría la gente, entonces???). Más datos... está en La ratonera cultural: Corrientes 5552 (estación Malabia de Línea B), email elcambiazo@gmail.com, o llamen a Florecia 1667660624 (no la conozco) o Miriam (1563526813) que es muy simpática. Y la han anunciado en Práctica X, pero a ver si la gente empieza a ir o no. La entrada vale 3 pesos.

Mora Godoy Tango II Intermedios

So stuff has been advancing nicely so I decided to try a Tango II Intermedios class in Mora Godoy, which is right near my house. The teafchers were good although you can really tell that, aside from the DNI teachers who have the DNI technique, they are basically just pointing out whatever they find to be interesting. So more experience would make them better, and just what to focus on is not particulary obvious for them.

But anyway, the figure they showed was very long and had all kinds of complicated shit. I just did a part of it. There were too many women and they all danced well, although some of that Buenos Aires "who the fuck are you we're Mora's students" did show up.

Anyway, right now it's:
50 pesos for 5 clases al mes
80 pesos for 10 clases al mes
120 pesos for paso libre
o 12 pesos per class

It's the only place I've seen that has this kind of bono, but obviously Mora has learned a thing or two from going to the gym.

Anyway, I think I'll go there a few Tuesdays and see if I can keep up with some part of the class.

Note that Mora's website is NOT up-to-date as far as the class schedule goes. Letting your website get out of date is so third-world, isn't it?

Too Many Damn Classes

So Naveira was great the other night at Practica X, although perhaps it's not the most emotional tango around.

Anyway, I've been keeping up my rhythm of 7 classes or more per week, and today I tried two new ones. The first was great: Tango 4 at DNI with Sebastián and Eugenia. I like the way they teach, and the figure was really cool: I finally understood how to get the barridas to always be lateral or frontal or whatever. The second one was Tango Salón with Fabián Peralta (at Carlos Copello at 6pm for , which was more like Bailar como Fabián Peralta with Fabián Peralta. The idea of the class was cool: he basically focused on rhythm. But the way he did it was kind of retarded, although I think I'll be able to use those concepts soon. Basically, with syncopation you have more options than quarter- or eight-notes. You can also do eighth quarter quarter eighth, which is must easier to handle in terms of movements than straight eight notes.

But anyway, I've been analyzing my dancing for two weeks now and there are a few things I want to clear up. First of all, as my friend Agnes from one of those Baltic countries says, you don't wait for the woman to get to her axis. You lead her to arrive at her axis faster (No esperes que la mujer descargue. Hacé que descargue más rápido). And then I'm having this other problem where I'm just sucking and dancing weakly and unsurely (whatever). So I'm trying to get back to my onda, which has to do with learning to dance and making the transition, and putting everything together and dancing.

But one of the things I've decided recently is that I really do need to focus on repertoire. I really need to start getting a handle on the figures that I know, how to connect them, the figures that I don't know and need to know. Now, most of this would be better with a dance partner, which I do not have yet (though you can always get somebody to come once a week, which you could also do in the prácticas without a problem, in fact you could just ask them to try something, it's no problem) but it's also just a mental practice. One of the best things to do while you're falling asleep is to think of some of the figures that you've learned recently.

I'm wondering if I should keep a log of the figures I've learned, or a Kbase.

This last week Download.com and Softopedia.com (and others) finally published the Trashpad by Confusionists, Inc.. It's a tool to be able to do freewriting without anybody being able to read your stuff, ever, because it deletes the text as it scrolls off the screen.

Naveira in PracticaX

I'm off to Practica X to see Gustavo Naveira and Giselle Anne dance. They're supposed to be the best for real, so we'll see just what that means. In the meantime, I hope to dance a bit, and try out some of the stuff I've been working on, both in terms of my position and in terms of hers.

Today in DNI was cool, yesterday was cool too... it's all cool, and I think that estoy empezando a cerrar el cerco (around tango, I suppose).

Still Sucking At Tango

First off, there are only about 7 or 8 users that ever see this blog, so I can't really be too worried about keeping my writing up.

I'm still doing at least seven classes a week and going to one or two prácticas (usually Práctica X and Tango Cool on Fridays, although last week I did Tango Discovery on Sunday and this week I might do Tango Motivo tomorrow night although it's quite variable). And I'm still concentrated on DNI and Copello Tango 2, and I'm pretty convinced that it's a good group of teachers. Gonzalo and Mariel from DNI are going to be gone for a while, which is a loss.

So the following things have come up:

• I'm moving my arms a lot, even though I'm also moving my torso a lot too (which isn't really a common problem: usually you move your arms too much because you're not moving torso). The problem is that "keeping your arms still" and "keeping your head with your torso" are obvious only according to some ways of looking at it. For me, moving my head with my torso is quite unnatural. It's hard for people to understand when they say, "okay, look you moved your arm" it's obvious, of course, but since my torso is moving the obvious thing for me to do would be to extend and contract the arm to keep it in one place, and not have it move with my torso. I think I'm REALLY close to a breakthrough on this... at least I've found my torso, so it's not going so badly.
• I've kind of found a way to start dancing, which is some mix between listening to the music, making sure my steps are truly right and left and backward and forward, working very carefully with the woman, and taking advantage of spaces on the dance floor and trying not to think about the figures I'm going to do. The idea is not to avoid using your vocabulary of figures, but rather to let your vocabulary come out a bit more naturally. I've practiced some figures a lot and I've also done a lot consciously on the dance floor a bunch. I have enough figures to get moving, the idea is to dance with the vocabulary I have plus one or two more figures that I've learned recently.
• After that breakthrough I went to dance with my chica who said that I'm indecisive, my leads are incomprehensible, and that I've even forgotten everything I learned about my caminata. Now this is weird because I went over this with Jose (from Copello) and he said that he doesn't feel my leads as weak. Now it's true that I'm working on getting my leads to be more dynamic with Pedro from DNI, but I'm not sure whether my chica is just expecting a lot, or whether she's sensing that, or whether she's sensing something else. But in any case, the point is that there's some weird Eastern stuff going on in tango: it has to do with flexibility and firmness and all that bullshit.

I talked to El Indio at Catedral the other night because I like how he dances. He's giving classes at La Catedral on Monday 20-21.30 and on Thursdays 21-23 at Avenida Lacroze 4181 6o piso (chacarita).

Well, chilling out tonight and tomorrow I head to DNI and then maybe I'll check out the night class with El Indio or maybe at Canning or... well, there are always options. This is Buenos Aires, after all.

Still Rocking On, But Very Little Blogging

I have some amazing findings, and while I haven't blogged much about my tango -- or anything else -- I'm still in the thick of it. Though I could do more, of course...

First: even the simplest exercises, like doing quarter turns in both directions on one foot or the other, pay off! I've been spinning around in my apartment for a while -- I think that the mirror doesn't even help, because if you fall over you're out of eje -- and it's really working. This comes up in classes or practicas just about every day: some small kind of turn. If you don't have "balance," they won't work. The good news is that you can develop balance.

Second, I've decided that practicas and milongas are quite important for me now. This may represent a change of phase, or rather just be my backing off to a middle position. I'm definitely emphasizing group classes first, and practicas second. I don't take private classes though I can't give you any clear reasons as to why. But anyway, the emphasis is still on classes, where I spend most of my tango time. Second emphasis is on home practice alone. And the third most important thing is practicas.

I'm mostly heading to Practica X on Tuesdays and Tango Cool on Fridays. I also like the practica at Spell Cafe on Sundays, but there are so few people there that it could just as well NOT work out.

Third, I've decided that I'm using the tags wrong for Blogger which explains why I get no hits.

Fourth, I've decided that writing down figures is totally not worthwhile, especially since all the stuff I learn now just repeats. I did a lot of list memorization in Italian and very little in Spanish (I admit, I had already learned Italian) but I think that in the end you learn to speak with a decent vocabulary anyway. Sorry about the analogy, but the point is that if I need vocabulary, I can start memorizing figures now. For the time being, I need to focus on technique and general stuff and not get caught up in memorizing figures.

Fifth, today I had an amazing aside with Mariel from DNI who basically showed me why my leads to not work with women who have no body control (and probably bigger women, too): because my leads are way to big for the woman. She wasn't talking about my movements but rather about my right and left arm and their lateral distance from the woman. She totally changed my abrazo. I'm pretty excited to try it out, which I'll do tomorrow in class and then later at Practica X.

Tango 1 at DNI

Last night I did Tango 2 with Jose and Viky and today Tango 2-3 or whatever in DNI with Gonzalo and Mariel. Of course Jose and Viky are teaching compatible stuff with DNI, since they studied with Dana and Pablo (which I did not know). But more importantly, I got together with Pedro from DNI to go over a few concepts before class. He really understands stuff and has a great way of teaching, even if his dancing is still a bit verde.

Tango in Buenos Aires is so great because there's always a new crop of people coming through the system, most of them being foreigners who come in and then eventually leave. The first time you ask somebody to dance you don't know them, but then subsequently you do. And if you're nice and even just okay, women are glad to dance with you because a good man is hard to find.

Tonight I'm going to try to get to the práctica at Tango Motivo, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to swing it. Life isn't all just tango. For one thing, I think I'm going to hit another heavy programming phase on the TheKbase (www.thekbase.com) and TheKBase Web (www.kbaseweb.com). For another, I'm here with my chica so who knows what'll happen next. This is Argentina, where the mundane is unpredictable and nothing much ever happens except for a big disaster every few years, for which no one was planning even though the warning signs were not particulary non-obvious.

Tango Tango and The Southfest

I haven't been writing much, but I've been keeping my tango at a high volume. And I've even gotten some time -- with talcum powder -- to work on balance and spinning at home. I don't know if it's a good idea to be working with "help," but it sure feels right. I remember that when I was 11 learning to play snare drum, the surface made a big difference. Now I can do really fast doubles on any surface with or without drumsticks.

I've been checking out the class at Tango Cool (www.tangocool.com) a lot, and it's interesting but I do have questions about whether it's compatible with what is now considered "traditional" tango salón. According to Gabriel from Tango Cool, his stuff is actually more traditional, going back to the old Milonguero stuff. Basically, the man moves his base (knees which move feet and waist) instead of moving the torso to move the woman around. The torso keeps connection with the woman, which is how the woman eventually moves... ? Well, I don't have it that clear yet. But in any case, the Tango Cool prácticas are the best aside from Practica X, which is really the coolest around.

Then I've been going to DNI a lot, and I hope to check out a class later today at Tango Brujo (early, something like 19.30). And I'm still hanging around at Tango 2 at Copello (Jose and Viky, who are dancing with Tanghetto at Sabor a Tango this Thursday early, at like midnight). I have to say that as far as what I've seen so far, DNI is ironically the most conservative: lots of emphasis on the abrazo cerrado, and although they talk about vínculos (links) they do try to lead from the torso. Actually, if you watch Gonzalo dance -- he's the best after Pablo, who I've never seen -- his arms move way less than Christian's (the youngest of the dancers).

And in between all of this I went to the Southfest to dance on empty water bottles and see David Guetta, who said it was, "the best gig of the year!" I have to admit that although the place was too full because it was raining outside, and people inside were moving around a bit too much until about 4am, it was a great time. You can't just do tango.

One of the great differences is that after a real night of joda you have coffee at 7am to relax after the war. Breakfast at 7am after the milonga is just sustaining an already calm night (even if you dance all night). Once in a while a good night of joda is really great.

Inflation In Buenos Aires

Well, here are the numbers. The rotisiería china called Mandarin in Barrio Norte will be the arbitrarily selected sample (my apartment rent went up about 18% in a year, just in case you need to make sure that an arbitrarily selected sample works as a hypothesis). I have the menus from 4-2006 and 3-2007 (11-month cycles give you more inflation, just like 30-day months, which is how all gyms here work). So here are some prices:

dish/old/new/rise
Almond Chicken/12/14/16.6%
Wide Rice Noodles/10/12/20%
Spring Rolls/4/5/20%
Chinese Vegetables/6/8/33%
Seafood Casserole Thinger/25/30/25%

Most of the dishes are on the 15-20% rise in 11 months, but some rise as much as 33% (that's the max as far as I can tell).

So how cheap is Buenos Aires... ummm, it's getting worse fast. And for all the geniuses out there who say, "yeah, but the cambio will change to accommodate", that's just dead WRONG in the short- to mid-term. The government is buying up dollars to keep the dollar up at 3+ pesos, but if and when they stop doing this the dollar will drop to 2.5 or so. Then I'll be ending this blog, I think.

The point is that yes, the dollar does fall into line, but when? How long did we have uno-a-uno for here? I wasn't here but it was about 10 years of fiction.

Saying Cool Stuff, Moving In Little Space, Practicing Alone

First off, last night's trip to La Viruta demonstrates, yet again, that if you can't do enrosques very well alone they're not going to come out too well on the dance floor.

Secondly, I was starting to think about the different variations that you can do on a move: rotation, angle (and other rotations, for instance you can walk leaning to the left causing a counter-clockwise circle), distance, rhythm... but it's strange, and it's something I noted with salsa for a while too: for the first few tangos you feel like the king of the world, trying out all kinds of different moves in different directions and everything feels so new. But then you eventually fail to develop any themes, fail to relate better to the music... and then I'm just bored, kind of flitting back and forth and doing what's necessary to finish the song. So I have to work on plugging into the woman and the song, even if there is little space like at the Viruta last night (too little space since it was Saturday, but there was an abundance of women).

This is interesting, though I don't think I'll be too coherent here: there were a few times in which I was able to have a good night in salsa for hours and begin to discover new relationships between moves and other moves, etc. Now that is the point that I want to get to: improvisation.

Encircling The Bear

So first off, a quick comment about the ochos milongueros thingers: I just tried them out a whole bunch and what's up is that it's probably the first lead where you have to become aware that you're not leading the woman in terms of your space but rather in terms of hers. So to get her to cross after a sidestep, you have to do three things (still wondering if it's two or three): get her moving laterally, twist her and then pull her a little bit in the direction of the cross. Now that sounds very dangerous because you could pull her off axis... I'll have to keep thinking about this.

Cool figure tonight in Copello (with Cecilia Gonzalez and Gustavo, who it turns out is really great) which looked something like this:

#	Lead	Follow	Comments
1	RF	LB	4-track with l on f's left (salida en 5)
2	LF	RB	rebote, so either peso medio or whatever
3	LB	RF	here the woman starts a right turn
4	RF	LS	L does a sacada leading the woman into a big planeo
5	-	RB	really just the continuation of her left lateral move, sacada-ed
6	LF	-	man whips his hips around to get his left foot to her right, freno
7	RB	-	man shifts his weight back onto his right foot (but as far to the left as possible, to leave the woman room to step forward comfortably)
8	-	RF	woman steps over man's left foot

Oh man, this stuff is so boring to notate...

So anyway, about encircling the bear (and then I've got to get to another disfraz party): I figured this out with Italian and then with Spanish and never really got it with salsa but I'm getting it with tango. If you study enough, the same problems that you thought you'd beat come up again and again (with a slightly different form each time). So if you just keep studying, eventually you'll get the time to work on them because they're important recurring problems.

So at first the universe of knowledge that you're trying to learn just seems to damn large, but then later the basic part of is knowable. For instance, enrosques while the woman turns are difficult, but you will eventually have to tackle them, and they will keep coming up and you will keep getting better at them.

Isn't it great how I don't even explain the bear metaphor? I'm off!

Ochos Milgongueros

So I don't know about ochos milongueros but I was working with crossing the woman on a side step just now (with my chica, maybe dating a dancer does pay off?) and I finally get it. It's two sequential movements that you lead before the woman gets to her weight. First you lead her to the side, then you turn her, all antes de que llegue a su peso. It's really easy once you know what you're trying to do. Why doesn't anybody ever explain this shit?

Off to class at Copello with Cecilia Gonzalez (I think), then to a fiesta de disfraces (again! I'm really getting good use out of my wig), and then if everything works out I'll hit the Viruta at about 3am. Now that I'm back dancing again :)

Another Day, Another Dollar (Well, Not Really)

Another intense tango day, where I did everything except what I'm supposed to do, which is to work on balance at home alone. Although I did do my Iyengar Yoga class as usual (I go three times a week to an excellent place in Barrio Norte), which was quite painful and nice. Now that I've been at it for over a year it's taken on some real meaning.

So tonight I went to DNI and had class with Sebastián and Eugenia, which was a great class. They just worked on some simple figures, working on weight and connection and that kind of stuff. I'm trying to think of what I learned... hmmm....: suck my gut in, don't pass the mujer on the left (keep the connection), and then with Eugenia there were different things about leading the woman. The real issue is that you have to (duh) lead the woman into what you want her to do. It's a bit hard to figure out how you're fucking up the lead without somebody who knows telling you, but probably not impossible. You just need to try everything slow and see how it works out.

Then I went with my friend Julia -- who is a classically trained dancer who has done shows in tango and everything, but she's fatally bad to dance with... not sure how to explain this yet -- to Villa Malcom to the class for Tango Cool. Although it's not that close to DNI, it's a great option because you get 2 for 1 (class and práctica), and it's one of the best prácticas de la semana.

Anyway, I really like to take one weird class a week, and Tango Cool is definitely it. Today we did pretty cool stuff: just basically getting the woman to cross (in all different directions). So today Gabriel was basically taking the same tack as Carla Marano but breaking the teaching a bit more into stages. Getting the woman into back crosses to the side are apparently the same as ochos milongueros, which unfortunately I'm not familiar with.

Oh yeah, then he worked on another concept which was really nice, which is how the man can cross to break the woman's turn and turn the direction around. Really nice stuff.

The practica was absolutely great, with really good people and a really good vibe. Some of my favorite people were there, especially Kathalina who is now very very old (birthday). She's got to be one of the most generous people that I've ever met in my life, but she's also got a really good eye for stuff in tango. A lot of her comments are spot on, which is really exciting.

I was dancing pretty well tonight for a bit, but sometimes I just start repeating myself. I'm beginning to think that the problem is not vocabulary, but a bit deeper (and perhaps easier to solve). I have enough figures and ways to move.

Separating Lead From My Movement

Let's see how this Tangotation thing works (http://www.easytango.com/dance/Tangotation)... yesterday in DNI we did two really great figures to work on separating the man's lead from the woman's movement. Something like this (nice that Blogger allows you to use tables even if the WYSIWYG doesn't)....

First Figure

#	Lead	Follow	Comments
1	LF	RB	Lead and follower don't transfer weight completely (medio peso)
2	RB	Nothing	Man moves right foot back and to his left, but his hips (and most importantly his torso) stay locked forward. Hip-hopish
3	Nothing	RF	Man and woman are turning clockwise, getting in line with the man's back foot
4	Nothing	LF	Pivot ends and woman is on LF facing the man. Man has to wait until woman completes this pivot, that could take a while.
5	LS	RS	Move out for two (básico)

Hmmm... that wasn't too bad but I wonder if anyone will actually understand the figure from these notes. Although that's really not the point: the point is that I can remember the figure from these notes.

And then we did the figure the other way around, basically: again, the point is the same, that the lead plants the follower in her medio peso and then moves around a bit and then brings her with him. That was Cristian and Carolina's class, and they're always great. Plus, Pedro is a bit verde, but he does help out with the classes quite a bit.

So I'll be trying out these different kinds of notation from time to to see how they work for different figures, and to see if I can start developing some kind of vocabulary to work with.

Now the most important point that Cristian made last night was a really nice one: the man starts out by learning structures and by marking them brusquely to the woman. Later he starts to lead them in a softer fashion. The main point is the man has to have the structure that he wants to lead clear, because otherwise it's very uncomfortable for the woman (she is either paralyzed or does any movement out of nerviousness).

And my point: later, by varying the rhythms, combinations and other stuff (angles and height, for instance) the man starts to truly improvise the dance. When he can truly connect with the song, his partner and invent new stuff, he's a good dancer. And when that happens and the couple looks great, he's a great dancer.

Cold and Sunny in Buenos Aires, and just like last year, I can't figure out how to make my calefacción turn on (yes, I've read the instructions). Huge tango night ahead: DNI, then Copello, then Villa Malcom (probably, but there's also a birthday party I should get to... this is a busy period for Argentinians, with a lot of birthdays and so forth).

Weight On The Balls Of Your Feet

I've commented a whole bunch that there are few practical advantages to hanging out with dancers a lot, since they seem to dance less than people that are learning dance. But sometimes they just see things that you would otherwise miss.

I was hanging out at my chica's place last night and she has a little dancer friend there who teaches contemporáneo. So I say, "well, if I could just learn to balance my weight on the ball of one foot I'd be happy." And I show him how I do it and he looks at my knee position and he realizes that it's all wrong. I always thought the point was to be on the ball of the foot and use the big toe to sort of hold the structure up. This is wrong. The knee has to be over the center of the foot (and then the hip has to be aligned somewhere in this whole thing too, I'll have to figure it out). So the point is that your can't roll onto the arch of your foot, but rather you have to keep your foot centered. So I'll be working with this. The key words are "keep your knee over your middle or third toe."

And then spinning (or doing enrosques of whatever type in tango) uses this same part of the foot. So that's something to work on.

Moving Ahead

This is really hard to figure out: is it better to use my laptop in dual-monitor mode with my external monitor, or should I just use the external monitor and forget about the laptop screen. Why would I do this? Because the keyboard for the laptop just gets in the way.

But this post is not about technology, although lemme mention a few quick things: first of all, Pandora (www.pandora.com) is annoying because I cannot say WHY I don't like certain music. In my electronic station, for instance (I put a link for that here in one past article; I'll have to separate out the links soon) I don't want ANY "trance" music, meaning basically that if it's above a certain BPM I don't want it. Using the "thumbs up/down" technology of Pandora, I can neve specify that, and trance songs just keep creeping back in.

And while I'm on about technology, I'm comparing a Panaonic wet/dry razor with a Norelco (say Phillips) one. And I'm beginning to think that perhaps my father is right: Norelco really does scratch up your face less, but the thingers spin so SLOWLY.

But back to tango!

So I've been following my plan of moving the focus back to classes and more classes. I've been taking a lot of classes in DNI and I have to say that I really like them. I'm not positive but I think that aside from Pablo and Dana I'm taking classes with all the tango teachers in DNI. I really do like all of them, and I'm very picky. They all see different flaws in my dancing, which is the point, and they're all very intelligent and quite relaxed, even with difficult questions.

I'm also doing a lot of classes at Copello with Jose and Viky, and since they're in Bariloche this week, Cecilia Gonzalez (diva!) and partner (not Saucedo, her real dance partner) will be teaching. They're great too... there are a lot of great dance instructors in Buenos Aires.

So anyway, my dance is getting way better, and my balance and caminata are too. And I went to Práctica X the other night and danced okay, and I'm beginning to feel the woman better and my weight is nicely forward and all that stuff. And the up-down stuff and medio-peso stuff from DNI is really paying off.

So it's time to get some vocabulary (repetoire, if you will).

Now I'll need to get into how to describe dance steps and I know that there are some pretty standard notations in ballroom, and I hope to learn those [then I started researching this topic, and Blogger lost all of this post... luckily, I backed up the text]... and then I'll need to figure out a way to get the notation online, because I will NOT be keeping a stupid notebook of dance steps. Although maybe a notebook is the way to go. This could be interesting.

Verbrack Released

When I was learning Italian -- and later Spanish -- I needed a way to drill verbs. The kind of speed and dexterity you get when you learn the "tables" is okay, but I wanted something a bit better for my head. And I knew -- and this was correct -- that in everyday conversations no one is going to wait for you to conjugate verbs. You have to have all verbs in all common tenses in all pronouns ready to go at all times.

So that was like 1996 and I made a software "machine" to help me. Instead of describing it to people, I built a new one using Macromedia Flex (the data is in XML, so if anybody wants more languages let me know). It's the Verbrack and it's the best way to drill verbs. It's really not that boring, but if people start using it (I'm watching with Google Analytics) I'll make it better.

So check it out here and see if you find it useful for your Spanish or Italian learning. Let me know if you want me to make any modificiations to the machine or add any languages.

Moving Ahead With The Plan

Well, this blog has stopped receiving any notable hits, and that makes sense since I've stopped writing here.

So what's been going on? A lot of tango lessons and almost no going out for now. I've been doing a lot of Tango 2/3 and Tango 3 at DNI and I really like those classes, because they focus on technique. Then I can come to the classes at Copello and everything just happens, because I'm learning how to deal with the woman's weight and stuff. It's funny: mi chica thinks that DNI is something I should do later on, once I learn the basics. But DNI is the only place that's focusing on the basics: none of the other classes I've seen focus much on connection or any of that kind of detailed stuff. So DNI is pretty cool in my opinion, and I also dig them on a personal level. It's not easy to find Argentinians that do not go with the general cultural idea that ignorance (and stupidity) is bliss. At DNI they welcome questions, investigation, and all that stuff. Good people.

Tonight at Tango 2 in Copello (which is more advanced, at least theoretically, than Tango 2/3 in DNI) Jose and Viky were at Teatro Empire where they danced the inauration of Otro Aires 2, which is a Cd and the band might have the same name. So Cecilia Gonzalez, who teaches with Eduardo Saucedo in the Confitería Ideal taught with her partner (something with a G). She's incredible and probably one of the coolest people in normal Tango Salón. They taught a cool figure, and I noticed that the balance exercises I'm doing at home are really paying off.

Well, I'm writing this while I'm wasting time before going to a party here in Buenos Aires (with all professional tango people, which means that no tango will be danced or mentioned except to name names and say who is doing what or who did what to whom. It's a costume party so perhaps I'll put up a pic or two). Anyway, this is one of the funniest things about non-tango Buenos Aires (which is most of Buenos Aires): stuff starts late. Going out starts late. And they don't eat dinner late (unlike Madrid, which was totally easy to handle: dinner late, going out late) so you have all this dead time until about 2 or 3am when you hit the party. It's a great time to get work done or work on your balance or whatever. Whatever you do, unless you hang out with really cool people, do not hang out with them before going out. I learned that the hard way in my Electronica days: people are practically falling asleep waiting for the night to start.

Tango solves all of that.

Note: While I'm writing this I'm listening to

http://www.pandora.com/share/station/59a5ffbc6b0338727773f45f809158c7b605a4ab5f33e08b

which you can check out if you sign up with a valid US address with a real postal code like 94113 (for San Francisco, California) or whatever. But it's illegal to use the service if you're not in the US, of course, so I wouldn't recommend it.

Getting Back To Classes

Nothing too interesting for now. Just moving back to my original thinking that for the guy (the "leader," the guy who generally has his left hand out) going to milongas a whole bunch when you don't have much repetoire is for idiots. It seems like it doesn't hurt but that's only assuming that you have an infinite amount of time and energy and will keep doing both classes and milongas. But that's not the case. You will ultimately substitute milongas for classes, and that means that you will then be retardizing: getting really good at the moves your comfortable with and locking your repertoire at a low level.

It happens with languages and it happened to me with salsa. I'd write more but I have to get to class.

So I went to DNI and then Copello 2 on Friday night and Saturday night, and suddenly stuff starts overlapping (it's happened other weeks too: I know it seems unlikely given such a large number of possibilities, but suddenly they're all demonstrating a clockwise turn starting with the guy entering to the woman's left in 4-track). Anyway, the down-up-down stuff they show in DNI is right on, José and Vicky do it naturally and they don't know so they don't explain it, and more classes are more classes and that's it. And you also get to know more good-looking women, and even more importantly, available dancers and their phone numbers.

Loving not being at the milongas just yet, though I might happen by the Viruta tonight.

Getting Back To Classes

Suddenly I'm not that into going out to milongas, although I'll go and observe and dance a bit. It's not that I can't dance -- and in fact I've gotten quite good and moving around in the milonga without bumping into people, and I do it better than people who are better than me -- but rather that I just don't think it's the right context in many cases. Nah, maybe my attitude is wrong and I'll adjust soon, but sometimes I just don't feel like "practicing" with (on) people.

Went to DNI class at 7pm last night (Tango 3 or 2/3) with Cristian and Carolina (and Pedro). Really fun stuff, and I'm beginning to get some idea of what the play of energies is in tango (and in dance in general). It's not that you push into the floor, but rather that when you push into the floor you rise up with your torso, and that's a general play that you're doing all the time. At least that's what I'm beginning to understand. The only thing DNI does is detail that stuff better. It's not really that different.

One of the things they hit with DNI is the verticals of the figure (down or up, bending your knees more or less) and it REALLY helps the figure come out a lot. It's pretty brilliant, actually.

Much much later went to Catedral (at 1.30am) and it was very dead, although the usual group of foreigners was hanging out. But there were so few people that it was hard to figure out who one would dance with, though last night I wasn't that interested in dancing.

Today I'll be heading to DNI at 7pm and then to Copello for 9pm (they're pretty close if you think about it). After 3+ hours of classes perhaps I'll be done for the night, or perhaps ready for a milonga. Not sure yet.

DNI, La Viruta, Running Before You Can Walk

Tuesday night I was just burned out and didn't feel like going to Practica X and dancing poorly. I've really gotten worse, or perhaps I now know how bad I am.

Last night (Wed.) I went to the Viruta and there were very few people there. I didn't really feel like asking anybody who was good to dance, so I ended up dancing with Joana or something from Sweden. She's a frustrated tango beginner who is apparently a Lindy Hop instructor in Sweden. She actually asked me to dance, so we danced about 10 tangos and that was my night.

The fact is that you have to dance with people at your level -- or pay people who are really good, or somehow get them to dance with you con gusto -- so that you don't feel like you're wasting their time. Although you do have to keep asking good people to dance, because one generous person can change the whole landscape and give you a chance to get to work. Dancing with beginners is good to feel the woman's weight and so forth, but if the woman cannot walk (as in tango, if she can't walk at all it's another story) it's hard to work on your camminata. This is something that I've been saying since my salsa days: the woman's development has very little to do with the man's development. My great analogy is that when you learn to drive, they don't give you a fucked-up car with all kinds of strange alignment problems where the brakes and gas don't work. So why should beginners learn together?

I avoided all of this bullshit in languages by just working with tapes and I never spoke with any other learners. Which is kind of what people keep telling me: just take private classes. We'll see how that works out, I think I've struck a deal with some people.

So anyway, I was talking to my chica last night about learning to walk in tango and how important that is, and I said, "look, learning to walk is nice, but it doesn't help with the fact that you have to know giros, for instance." But her position is that learning to walk is balance and movement, and until you know how to walk you can't run. What is running? She says, "DNI, for instance, that's running."

Now, don't expect too coherent a conversation with most people here in Argentina (no, it's not my Spanish, I had years of more-than-coherent conversations in Spanish in Spain), but the idea that people have of DNI is wrong (at least at my level). All the different schools, from Copello to Aoniken at La escuela argentina de tango to whomever else, all of them basically teach a sequence and then correct you using that as a basis. At DNI that's true too, and in fact they pay very special attention to make sure that the students can do the sequence (and that they've explained it well enough for the students to follow it so that they teachers can just correct you). I've never seen any fuera-de-ejes or anything else that's weird in DNI, whereas in Copello Tango 1 we did do a few volcadas.

Now, there are places -- in the classes with Fabian Peralta, for instance, and this guy at the Sunderland -- where you apparently just walk for hours. But aside from those, all the classes are pretty much the same. And the DNI propuesta is not really that radical -- it just puts emphasis on some different stuff, but it's (as far as I've seen thus far) very compatible with all the stuff I've seen in Tango Salón thus far. Which doesn't mean that I don't need to work on walking and balance and basic shit.

Although last night I realized that I need more giros, because otherwise you're just doing stupid little half circles all the time. You need to be able to go 360º to get any interesting movement patterns on the floor.

Well, tonight to class at 7pm at DNI and then later to Catedral. We'll see how all of this goes.

Back To Classes and Perfecting My Tango

Yesterday I went to 1pm class at DNI (what happened there? A month ago there were great dancers at the 1pm classes, now there's nobody. Maybe I should try Tango 4? I don't think so) with Gonzalo and Mariel. They're so cool, they really get along great and are teaching the same thing (this is not true for Eugenia and Sebastián, who are teaching two different classes using the same figure). The figure was nice and had a few rebounds and a nice one to do a turn. Obviously my balance is getting better since I didn't even think about the turn.

Then I went to Tango Motivo which basically sucked, but I think that it's just me and my weird headspace. There were definitely women to dance with, although not that many. On the other side of the coin, my chica came to the Práctica because she went to the Forever Tango auditions today. She's a great dancer but spent a lot of the night sentada. Which is the reality of the situation, always: although there may be more guys than girls (sic.) in some of the classes, guys are always lacking in the milonga. Which I'll be using to my advantage once I get out of my weird headspace.

Afterwards I took a walk by la Viruta to confirm that Monday and Tuesday it is, in fact, closed. Canning would have been the place to go last night.

Today I went to DNI again for Tango 2/3 with Sebastián and Eugenia (with Pedro asistiendo) and it was a great class. However, as always, the figure that S&E decided to teach was not only harder than the figure from the day before, but it was also not explained as well. Pedro helped me out a lot, so I have to give him props.

The figure was basically a front sacada woman to man, and then the woman and the man rotate around clockwise. Pretty interesting and hard to get the distances right.

Got to work on my stuff, torso and posture and all that shit, so it was a great class for me. One should note that there were twice as many men as women, which isn't even good if you're a woman because you have to change men all the time. Like real life, I assume.

I think I'm just too burned out and fucked up to head out to Practica X tonight, though that would be a great place to be. Next Tuesday for sure I'll do the class at Tango Motivo on Tuesday and then head to Práctica X.

I put a new counter on the page at the bottom, but it's quite a few hits behind the Google Analytics stuff I put in at the beginning. It's cool though because anybody can see the analysis.

On Suckage

So at this point I've been studying tango for 3 months and a (very small) bit, and while I've been trying to do it full-time, there are always some distractions (life obligations and non-obligations).

So let me go over why I suck in tango thus far:

• I have a very limited vocabulary to play with
• My posture isn't great yet, and sometimes I still move from the legs or feet
• My balance isn't great yet, so I can't do complicated enrosques
• My connection with the woman isn't great
• My connection with the rhythm is good, but my connection with the song is limited
• People say that I am tense and have all kinds of tension and pulling in my right arm
• People say that I still don't move from torso but rather I use my arms

Now I would write some good things about my tango, but "I'm learning fast" isn't too tangible. I do spend a lot of my time on the balls of my feet and I can find that forward posture, but really, on the dance floor, can anyone see that? I do "mark" well and there's rarely ambiguity. That's nice. Also I'm generally good at the inter-dance chatting :)

However, I have come to this deep conclusion tonight: this is no time to think about whether I'm a good dancer or not. This is the time to think about whether I'm moving from torso, whether my posture is right, and basic stuff like that. If the woman is bored out of her mind or I'm not terribly creative, interesting, plugged into the music or the woman, that's fine (for now).

This is all based on my language learning. My Spanish is great and my Italian was great and is now pretty damn good. And both of these projects were done in a vacuum and then later perfected on stage (The Italian Project living and working in Italian in Rome and the Spanish Project living and teaching in Spanish in Madrid and now Buenos Aires). And the idea is that if you had to constantly defend yourself in a language, as an adult, you actually slow down your learning. Which is why there are Americans who have lived in Rome for 35 years and suck.

So anyway, fuck everyone who says that I need to go to the milonga and dance and try to connect with the woman and the music. Right now I'm just trying to get my body moving in the correct fashion for this tango shit. Later I'll be learning cool moves and then, in the last phase I'll be extraordinarily worried about connecting the woman and the music. I know what anyone who reads this will think: "then it will be too late! You must do that during all of your development." Well, yes, I am doing that to some small extent. But if you focus on fluency and social aspects of speech from the get-go, you will be very very good at speaking in your fucked-up way with your little vocabulary and grammatical control. And that's how languages work, and I'm betting that dance can be learned as a language.

As I always say about all of my projects, if you can't identify the woodshed and separate it from the stage, you'll always suck. Look at all those drummers who play their same shitty style but really well after millions of gigs.

Unfortunately, in tango the woodshed is the (public) milonga right now. Sorry to everyone who has to put up with me, but to be honest, for you it's probably equally annoying: because a shitty guy who's practicing one thing or another for you is just about the same.

Practica Carla Marano --> Sunderland

Wow, tonight I was in Tango Motivo realizing just how badly I suck. Though it was a bad night (which doesn't help). But that is not what this post is about, and when I do write about it I'll be sure to detail how I suck. Because only in the details can really banal conditions like sucking be worth anything.

Anyway, this is about the práctica in Carla Marano. Now, while I wasn't busy sucking on the dance floor (I think last night was when the sucking moved from a whisper to a scream... I wonder if I'm objectively worse than before. I really do feel that way, but it can't be right) I was observing people dance. There was this one guy, Bruno, who was dancing with Carla and he is amazing. He danced quite simply, really, but it was so obvious that he was really improving in an open space, meaning that wasn't repeating some limited set of moves that he's learned. And then he just floated backwards a few steps, all the time bringing Carla along with him (I have to admit, she's not that nice to watch on the dance floor, but I'm sure I'm missing something). So anyway, I go up and talk to Bruno...

Bruno tells me that the reason that he has a caminata like that is that he studies with a guy named Pablito (?) Pérez in Sunderland (Mondays and Wednesdays from 20-22 hrs). Could be interesting. He makes you walk a lot, and he's a "viejo milonguero" but this guy Bruno is like, "look, it's worth it." I might just check it out. I'm surely not going too fast with my dancing, that's for sure.

Clase Carla Marano

Last night was pretty cool: Carla (from Tango Discovery)'s class [can you do that puntuation with the apostrophe?] at Malabia 1738 went over various types of sacadas. The cool stuff: Carla gives the problem to her students. The first exercise we did was, "alternate sacadas, one for the man, and one for the woman." Then she gave some examples.

Now, it's a pretty great thing to have somebody do something that is NOT a sequence but rather a problem-framing (alternate sacadas, for instance). However, it's not enough at all, and in fact just results in the same sort of lost searching. Sure, at home with your partner (if I only had a fixed partner) you could figure out some combinations with that general framework, but the problem space looks like this: there are three types of normal sacadas (front, side and back where the man takes the woman's place or vice-versa) and one additional type (cuarta sacada) in which the woman and man switch places. Leaving out the cuarta, any of the three can be done while the other person does a forward step (cruce delante), back step (cruce atrás) or a side step (apertura). Now I'm getting lost in the multiplication because if you do all the possible legs you always get four for each (rr rl ll lr), and the man can do it or the man can lead the woman to do it. So I guess that's about 3x3x4x2 or 64. Not to mention the cuarta sacada.

Now, those are a lot of friggin' options to just grab randomly, especially because a lot of them require special attention and twisting and all kinds of shit that, unless you're a real natural, you're not going to figure out on your on.

And then Carla shows us a sequence that none of the leaders got the first time around (one is my friend Katha, who is great, and she made up her own sequence the first time). When are teachers going to learn that it's a waste of individual time to go around and show us the sequence. If the general demonstration of the sequence is clear and repetitive (imagine if you did not understand the sequence: that's what teachers have to do) then you can use the individual time to correct individual errors. Otherwise, as happened with Carla last night, she goes around and shows the sequence to each of us individually. Now I realize that I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer as far as picking up sequences goes, but I can get it if you show it to me well several times. Because in the end, you'll have to do that anyway, and then you won't have any time to teach me anything specific to me!

Now, to be honest, Carla is great and she did give me some personal tips anyway, but that's only possible because the group is quite small (5 couples or less). With a larger group, you must demonstrate the sequence clearly.

Alright, I'm off to práctica at Malcom (Tango Motivo), I hope to write up my neat conversations and experiences at the Practica Carla Marano when I get home (assuming I get home).

Happy Tangoing!

Saturday April 7, Viruta (Experimenting!)

I'm going to title each one separately so as to keep all of this organized.

Now the locals say that the Viruta was closed for a week a few weeks ago because they do not have a license to play salsa and the municipal licensing whatever inspectors got there on a Friday night just while they were playing salsa. So you can imagine my surprise when I got the Viruta on Saturday and they were playing Reguetón (Reggaeton) and Rock. I couldn't wait for the salsa to come on, mostly to disprove the whole "salsa license" hypothesis (also to dance). However, the never played salsa, and my sources are friends with the DJ at the place, so I imagine that they'll never play salsa there.

The reggaeton, rock, and other bullshit music set lasted until 2am (or 1.30, I think) and I was pretty worried that it would go on forever. Please note that this was not the Swing set, in which they dance all that 1950's couple's danceable music. However, when any music comes on, Argentinians kind of stand there and move without any connection to the music. If the music is fast, they move more excitedly, but not in rhythm with the music. Another particularity of local culture is that regardless of the type of music, men ask women to dance ("would you like to dance Celebration with me?"). Weird. Does that happen in the US? I wouldn't know, I guess, but I think that in a hip hop club you might sidle up to somebody, but you're not going to ask somebody to dance.

But anyway, the guy at the door (and later the DJ) had told me that the set only had another .5 hour when I got there, and that was right. Then it was pure tango (and Vals and Milonga, of course). The tandas are large but they are definitely tandas. People were great and every woman I took out to dance lasted a whole tanda with me.

The students from Copello had a table which is why you should always go to some places at least once a week: that way you've got a bit of a social backbone out there. It helps if they're women and know how to dance, which was the case.

Anyway, I took off at 5am but there was still more dancing to be had. The Viruta has a great floor, but it's a bit crowded and some people have no idea what they're doing and even crash into you if you stay still. One of the worst offenders was one of my fellow students at Copello, so I'm not sure what to make of it. I hope I'm not that bad.

One of the things I'm beginning to do on the dance floor is not just dance, but try out some things that I'm thinking of, even if they're simple (like front sacadas) or difficult (like back sacadas). If you're friendly and serious and don't crash into people all the time, women will generally let you do some experimenting. In fact, in my experience they seem to prefer the experimenting. One of the foreign guys down here that women love dancing with is Michael "The Pistol" (keeps his left hand with the index finger out, but I guess he'll stop if he reads this) and he's always trying stuff, some of which doesn't work out at all.

More experimenting!

No Tango Last Night, But We Got A Link

As everyone knows, since Google started, the Internet works based on who links to you. We finally got a mention somewhere (http://www.fishnetsandfedoras.com) so we're now well on our way to fame (and later, fortune). I just have to put in better content, better photos, and more brilliant observations on Argentinians. I think I have a lot to contribute on this last point.

First let me say that I'm getting ready to go out and Saturday Night Live is coming in on cable channel whatever here in Buenos Aires, and my question is always the same: did it always suck this badly, or was it better when John Belushi was alive? I suspect that we only see the great skits from when Belushi was alive.

Anyway, yesterday was my parents last night here so I missed all tango classes. Then I died and couldn't go out (sore throat, fever, everything). However, everyone that did go out last night said the same thing: Canning was really crowded, and the Viruta was really not crowded. Which is strange. Is there any way to predict the patterns of these things in Buenos Aires? Tonight I think I'll head to the Viruta, but I have my doubts.

Anyway, since it's after midnight I'll write about today, Saturday, too. I went to class at Copello (Tango 2 with Jose y Virginia). Nice stuff with a man's primera sacada and a woman's tercera sacada. The figures came out nicely, which demonstrates my new spinning technique: if you suck your gut in and bend your knees, you will be much more stable.

Anyway, the information you won't find anywhere is that the class was nice with 1 or 2 men over a 1:1 ratio. Not bad, and Jose and Vicky are cool, but they're used to correcting at a pretty low level (no wonder they're the only people who can dance in the class). Also, once you get out of North America, questions about easy recipes and stuff never get answered. This guy asked tonight, "what's the secret for doing spins?" And Jose says, "work." Well, yeah, but there are a few tricks out there (Salsa Freak Edie What's-Her-Name had some great spinning tips a while ago).

Anyway, I think I'm heading to the Viruta. Here's a picture of my triply-non-kosher passover-week pizza:

Mucho Tango, Mas O Menos

This photo is from 6 in the morning waiting for some restaurants to open again on Viernes santo which literally translated means "not quite as annoying as this same holiday would be in Madrid, where everything closed for real."

Last night was quite cool. First, went to a Tango Dinner at a place on Suipacha between Lavalle and Corrientes (the one closer to Lavalle) that does tango shows for free during dinner... it was okay, but the food kind of sucked. The waiter assured me that it was just bad luck, that other diners had complained in the same day. I'm not sure I'll go back there. It was a question of convenience because my parents are staying downtown for their last few days.

Then we went to another shitty place to have desert on Esmeralda, also between Lavalle and Corrientes. These are probably the worst places my parents have seen since they've been here. Let's face it, downtown is a terrible place to stay compared to Recoleta (or I guess you could go the other way and stay in San Telmo or something).

1am Niño Bien
Niño Bien is one of the classic Thursday night places, and my Mexican friend Karla assured me that it's nice. However, last night was right before a feriado so there were so many people that it more like an electronic music club than anything else. And the dance floor was even worse. So when Karla got there we took off immediately for Catedral.

1.30pm Catedral (Medrano and Sarmiento)
We got to Catedral and there was a group playing and there was a fair number of spectators, but there was still one or two tables free (nada que ver con Niño Bien). The dance floor is uneven and weird, but there was definitely enough room to dance and try some stuff out.

Several more friends (the Australians, Ed and Annie and their friend Alex) showed up too and hung out for a bit, and it was generally a great night. Well, for me: Karla said that no on asked her to dance. But there were really very few guys! Anyway, I danced a lot with good people like Karla and Lía, her German friend. It's not my fault if better dancers than me have to stand people like me :)

4.50am Viruta
The Viruta closed early due to being the night before a holiday. You could get this information by guessing, because it sure as hell isn't on any website (showing the low value of information in a developing country).

As we walked into the Viruta we realized that most everybody had left, and they were announcing the last tango. I danced it with my chica (who had just come free, strangely) and danced quite well given how badly I suck. A great dance night, in the end...!

6am
We walked all the way to Corrientes along Scalabrini Ortiz (Emilio says, "it's only 4 blocks!") trying to find a place to have breakfast. Then I'm not sure what happened, I wound up at 12.30pm at my house really tired but unable to sleep (having slept elsewhere for 4.5 hours). The moral of the story: sleep is important, breakfast after going out is rarely interesting, don't bother. Oh, and go to your own house regardless of the prospect you have in front of you. If it's good enough, it will wait.

BocaTango

Went to Boca Tango last night since this person knows that person etc. The show was incredible and my parents loved it. I think that while Madero Tango is an amazing show (with differential pricing if you're Argentinian or not, bastards!), Boca Tango is way more fun. At Boca Tango there's a first theater part which they somehow make fun for even the most non-participative of participants. And then there was a serious tango music and dance part, with three couples all of whom were excellent. The level of the dancing wasn't perhaps as good as Madero Tango, but it's way better than La Esquina Homero Manci where only one of the couples was decent.

I was really impressed and enjoyed it. If you must spend 140+ pesos for a tango show, I would definitely recommend Boca Tango. On the other hand, you might want to save your money and just go to Bien Pulenta on Saturday night and watch when people finally dance. Though last night convinced me that at least one tango show in a Casa de tango is essential for any tourist stay in Buenos Aires.

Practica X and Color Tango in Canning

Quick report because I'm rushing out of the house to get my parents (who are still visiting) to go to "Chinatown" (Arribeños) and then we're going to Boca Tango where we know people. I hope they like it.

Last night:

Practica X
Práctica X was great as usual although if I'm not mistaken there were fewer people than normal. Lots of foreigners and lots of amazing dancers. This is one of the best female dancers who was there (I didn't even bother, of course)

But there were enough people to dance with, the floor is really nice (maybe too fast, but you can always put some water on your cromo) and really huge. Great vibe and great people as usual. However, I should note that one of my female friends was complaining that "no me saca nadie!" So I guess it depends on your perspective. On the other hand, one of my other female friends was having a great night. Not sure what this all means (yet).

Canning
Then I went to see Color Tango in Canning, which was great. The floor was tight (I didn't even dance, still feeling scared or whatever) but Color Tango was amazing. I always wondered how they get such a big sound... the answer is simple. Two bandoleones playing in unison! Now that might sound stupid, but Tango is based exclusively on technology that does not depend on electricity (except the microphones, of course). Personally, it was incredible and all, but I really think the best way to see Color Tango is on an MP3 player while you walk around Buenos Aires on a sunny day. Pero soy un hombre simple, ¿qué puedo decir?

Was Out Of Town, Now Back To Tango

I haven't gotten much of a chance to write but it's been a lot of tango anyway. But not as much as some of the foreigners out here, who take at least 2 or 3 classes a day. I see some of them at the prácticas and at the classes, and since I imagine that it's likely that if I see you at one class, you're probably taking other ones that I don't know about. Like that weird German guy with the moustache. Man, I should take that guy's picture. But his tango is pretty good, all things being very relative. It's surely better than mine. But sucking more or less is not really a great honor these days. And now my new book, Sucking At Tango.

I'm just being modest, really: I do still suck, but I think it's pretty clear that someday I'll dance okay (or maybe even well).

Let me see if I can remember anything from the week:

• Saturday, March 31: I went to Tango 2 class in Copello where we did enrosques with women's giros. I walked out in the middle because I got pretty frustrated. I really think that this is pretty much the hardest thing I've seen yet, because you have to pull the woman along as your feet catch up differentially. And at the same time you have to keep your balance.
  
• Sunday, April 1: Stayed in in the morning and mi chica helped me with enrosques. What's the final analysis: that until you have really good balance spinning and doing the enrosque alone, you can forget about doing it well with a woman.
• Sunday night: Went to the class with Carla (Tango Discovery) at Malabia 1738 1ºPiso at 9pm and práctica afterwards. Has anyone ever noticed that the floor sucks!? It's absolutely impossible to spin. Though if you have shoes with cromo it's nice because it roughs it up again (which is good, because in general you don't want your shoes too slippery). Anyway, there were very few people at the práctica.
  
• Sunday night, still: Then on a hot tip, we headed to Brujas for Salsa... wrong! So we headed to the Viruta and I really danced almost all night long until 6am. It was incredible: I really got some concepts on, and at some points I was really improvising and connecting with the woman. I mostly danced with my Mexican friend Karla, who is one of the coolest people I've met in Tango.
• Monday April 2: Hey man, it was Passover! I never made it anywhere, and since everything was closed due to Malvinas' day I couldn't take any classes during the day. Did figure out how to make an awesome kugel though!

One interesting note about the Viruta on Sunday night is how damn crowded it was. Also, people SUCK in the Viruta so they bump into you even when you don't fuck up.

Another interesting note is a general one about Buenos Aires which I noticed when I was dancing salsa a lot: Sundays before feriados are always way crowded. The Viruta was so packed on Sunday night that it was only acceptable if you were in a good mood in the first place. I was, remarkably.

Stuck in Bariloche

Well, I realize that it's not about tango, but right now I have no readers (thanks to Google Analytics, we can find out everything!) so what's the difference?

I'm stuck in Bariloche with a pretty good wifi connection and I'm at the Grand Hotel Bariloche waiting for information about my delayed flight to Buenos Aires. To the right is the view from my hotel room when I had a hotel room here. But now that I was travelling to Villa L'Angostura and San Martín de los Andes, I'm well checked out.

In fact, I got to the airport (I'm travelling with my parents, in fact) and the flight was delayed from 22.00 to 3.00 in the morning on LAN (codeshare with Aerolíneas Argentinas). So now we're doing time at the hotel, but we still have the car. ABA Car Rental in Bariloche was great, 225 pesos for 3 days and 600 kilometers.

The trip was really cool with a lot of beautiful stuff. After deciding to rent a car the morning of our first full day (our flight in got very delayed too), we saw Cerro Catedral which is one of the most important ski areas around. Cute stuff. Then on day two we headed to Villa L'Angostura (very green lake, but if you don't rent a boat what's the point?), and then headed on to San Martín (nice pretty town, merits a morning unless you have the entire day to do a boat trip... hey if we had known how delayed the flight was, we could've taken the all-day boat trip).

I'll try to put up an album of photos later today.

On Tango
This last weekend was great, including a visit from Kathalina on Sunday who brought me to a cool class that I had never seen before (with a práctica afterwards, really cool). The class is Tango Discovery with Carla Marano and Ana Carla Romera, from 21 to 22 hours at Malabia 1738 1ºPiso. It was great, because we did front sacadas, then we did back sacadas, and then we even did a figure with those. Hard going but fun stuff. If I hadn't gone travelling I would've gotten to practice some of that stuff... still looking forward to it.